Women and Deafness: Double Visions

(Women’s) Authority and Shaping Deafness: Editors’ Introduction

Editors’ Introduction The issue of authority is a central theme in both Deaf studies and women’s studies. Throughout American history, both Deaf people and women have had to fight for civil liberties against a domineering society. Citizens who happened to be deaf and female experienced a double share of discrimination: once from society in general and another from their own cultural group. For example, although all deaf people in several states were prohibited by law from driving automobiles in the 1920s and 1930s, at the same time all American deaf women were also denied membership in a leading advocacy organization, the National Fraternal Society of the Deaf (NFSD). Women were not even admitted to the NFSD until the 1950s and were not permitted to vote in the other prominent organization , the National Association of the Deaf, until 1964. The authors of the essays in this section call attention to the evolution of empowerment, self-definition, and the contested boundaries between and within these two ‘‘minority’’ populations. In these essays, they expand the analysis of authority to include concepts of influence, maternal roles, conformance, and rebellion. They consider the dynamics of relationships and assess how relations enhance what is seen as disabling: deafness and gender. Although scholarship in Deaf studies shares some common characteristics with women’s studies, the combination of the two disciplines in these essays offers perspectives on empowerment and authority that modify the traditional views of both disciplines. The methodology of this section emphasizes the close contextual framework of the subjects, illuminating the agency of women, both deaf and hearing, from different countries and centuries. Like in the essays in the previous section, in some of these works our contributors examine schools, but the perspective and foci differ. In this section, the broad 81 82 Part Two impact of communication policy and the feminization of the teaching profession are generally examined while more specific attention is given to the role of hearing, female educators of deaf children. This section begins with Plann’s essay on Marcelina Ruiz Ricote y Ferna ́ndez, a nineteenth-century teacher at the Madrid school for the deaf. Openly challenging common gender stereotypes, Ruiz Ricote criticized marriage, protested lower wages for women, and demanded education reforms to empower all female citizens. Plann’s study transports us beyond the United States and provides a vivid example of feminism in an unfamiliar environment. In so doing, Plann demonstrates the powerful role of context and compels us to consider both continuity and change in Deaf and women’s history. Similarly, Winzer looks at single, hearing, female educators of the deaf and their struggle to create what Robin Muncy once called the ‘‘dominion of female reform.’’ According to Winzer, skillful networking and labor transformations helped American women exploit gender stereotypes, enabling them to achieve professional success and economic stability. Her work offers a strong context for understanding the influence of gender on Deaf people’s history, and she also examines the ramifications of these trends. By focusing on the challenges facing female educators of deaf children , these essays complicate the debate about communication in Deaf schools and further our considerations about that debate’s impact on deaf children. Turning from teachers to mothers, the chapters by Abel and by Oliva and Lytle offer a different, but sometimes similar, vantage point. Examining identity, communication, and gender from the perspective of mothers , Abel, Oliva, and Lytle unveil the early and intimate shaping of Deaf women’s lives. Abel examines mothers of deaf children in the early 1900s, raising important questions about (women’s) authority and (Deaf) education during this period. As Abel illustrates, oralists both entrusted mothers with enormous training responsibilities and assumed that they could easily and gracefully surrender even very young children to residential schools. Oliva and Lytle describe an evolving and multifaceted relationship between a deaf daughter and her hearing mother and demonstrate some of the challenges and options facing parents and deaf children in the late twentieth century. Editors’ Introduction 83 Several overarching themes frame the essays in this section. Relations and relationships (including teacher-student and mother-daughter) appear as a common thread throughout these works, as does attention to the power of role models. The five authors in this section also raise important questions about ownership and control, and they expand the feminist critique of ‘‘separate spheres.’’ They do this in part by contrasting gendered spheres...